A Word from the Vine No. 548: Saying Yes and Staying Home

Hello again, friends. This is A Word from the Vine, and I'm Pastor Loren Christensen, coming to you from the Danish Countryside Chapel here in Exira.

I want to tell you about two sons and one vineyard.

A father tells his first son to go work the field. The boy says "no way" — and then goes anyway. He tells the second son the same thing. That boy says, "Sure thing, Dad" — and never leaves the porch.

"Which of the two did the will of his father?" — Matthew 21:31

Now here's what gets me every time I read this one. We'd naturally assume the polite son, the one with the good manners and the right words, is the faithful one. But Jesus says otherwise. The son who actually showed up in the field — even after saying no — that's the one who honored his father.

Friends, I've known folks my whole life who say "yes, Lord" every single Sunday morning. Amen in all the right places. But somewhere between the parking lot and Tuesday afternoon, that yes just... quietly disappears.

It's not our words that tend the vineyard. It's our boots in the dirt.

So here's your word from the vine today: don't ask yourself what you said this week. Ask yourself where you actually went.

This is Pastor Loren. Thanks for listening to A Word from the Vine. And remember — the Gospel isn't just something we believe. It's something we live.